Northern Ireland Tops Agenda As UK, EU Hold Fresh Post-Brexit Talks

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday hosted her first face-to-face meeting with European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, aiming to break months of deadlock over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland

Chevening, United Kingdom, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jan, 2022 ) :UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday hosted her first face-to-face meeting with European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, aiming to break months of deadlock over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

Truss, who was appointed to take over from Brexit minister David Frost after his resignation last month, welcomed Sefcovic at the government country residence Chevening in southeast England.

The two sides are set to focus on Northern Ireland, which has the UK's only land border with the European Union and has been a major stumbling block in the entire Brexit process since the 2016 referendum.

The Northern Ireland Protocol was signed separately from the wider 2020 Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU and aims to avoid a "hard" border on the island of Ireland.

But to keep the border open -- a key plank of a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of violence over British rule in Northern Ireland -- the province is effectively still in the European single market.

"Glad to meet my counterpart @trussliz to discuss the implementation of the Protocol on IE/NI," Sefcovic tweeted as discussions started, sharing photos of the pair greeting each other and walking in Chevening's picturesque grounds.

"My objective: stability, predictability in NI," he added, noting they had an opportunity to build on "far-reaching proposals" set out last year by Brussels to ease the on-the-ground tensions.